BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY NOV. 29, 2017) — ThHE PLANTET warned you, ah, but as spledor flashes and flails, it made no difference.

The city stands hellbent to install a toter garbage system that’s going to cost taxpayers a fortune, worsen blight, and prove impractical. So naturally, Mayor Trashcan and Kufflinks, her numbers hit man, claimed with forked. faces that this will save the Kapanskis money, remove litter, and be easy to implement.

In his presentation, Kerwood presented voodoo numbers on toter trash collection that were smokey, hazy, and obscure, even by his obfuscated “standards.” Kufflinks threw out a blizzard of numbers that failed to subtract down, multiply over, or divide under. He chisnbopped figures with such slushy ignorance as to even grow back some hair. Voila! A loss of several hundreds of thousands of dollars each year became a gain of nearly $90,000.

Bill Forrestell, one of the best DPW commissioners and public servants in city history, told the council’s Committee of the Whole that Kufflinks’ numbers “just don’t add up.” In Bill We Trust. Let’s look.

In making his presentation, Kuflinks, carrying Trashcan’s water but spilling every drop, conveniently failed to include the cost of the toters. The city will need to purchase 18,000 each of 45-gallon and 95-gallon receptacles for a respective cost of $574,200 and $727,020. The $1,301,220 total would seem to THE PLANET to be a relevant figure for Kufflinks to include, but then again, what do we know?

We would also point out that the city had previously reported the toters costing “only” $400,000 — also undisclosed by Kufflinks in his first set of numbers — but what’s $901,220 among friends? In the same manner, the initial claim of a state grant covering the cost of the toters morphed into a grant for $160,000 from Boston. Let’s see: That’s only about $1,141,220 that’s left for taxpayers to pick up. Not to worry, though. Kufflinks says he has a number of financing options for the difference. Gosh, THE PLANET wonders why he didn’t share any of those options with councilors? Could it be that it spells “tax hikes?” Is the Pope from Argentina?

To make it worse, Kufflinks assumes that city residents and businesses will reduce their garbage by 25%. Natch, he doesn’t explain by what legerdemain this magic trick will happen.

Wanna play connect the dots? Remember, it’s only a game.

1. In October last year, the city raids the PEDA fund to give Covanta a half million dollars for a new boiler and other upgrades. Covanta is a PRIVATE company.

4. The higher cost of the new garbage system will result in an upgrade of the fleet of Republic Services, the company that has the lucrative contract for city trash removal. Not bad. Taxpayers will buy shiny new trucks for Republic Services. It, too, is a PRIVATE company.

What picture do the dots form? What do these personalities in the municipality and in the private companies have in common?

Follow the money or ask “Joe’s brother-in-law,” the guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy. Outsiders need not

Mayor Trashcan, showing her Churchillian chops, set the anxious minds of Pittsfield’s bedraggled citizens at ease, saying “I’m confident our citizens can adjust to a new way of thinking about our garbage.” What “garbage” does she mean? Is it the garbage she and the other lackeys in city government dish out on a regular basis to Mary Jane and Joe?

At the bottom of the trash barrel, where admittedly the view can’t be trusted, this looks like a corrupt deal, phony in the extreme and rife with scandalous activity. But what does THE PLANET know? What do the vast majority of citizens and businesses know, who object to this measure? The answer can be found in the arrogance of Mayor Trashcan, who wants you to “adjust to a new way of thinking about … garbage,” and Kufflinks, who dumped a fetid toter of fake, trashy numbers all over the city.

They Know Better Than You Do.

They Are Government.

With Respect To You, They Stand Above.

They Hate You And Dare To Call It Love.

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“Firmness,/Not the full smile,/His art, but an art/In profile” — Ezra Pound, “Mauberley.”

Let’s hope you had a chance to see the Professor of Garbage originally from Brookline by way of Marlboro at the Committee of the whole, Dan. He was brought in to speak on the value of toter systems and recycling, some kind of pro who could have passed for a resident of Monterey…..California that is. Chris Connell has them all by the throat, he just need to finish.

Our Right Honorable Good Friend Chris Connell has this lined up. We only hope, as you do, that he can “finish the job.” He has ’em down. Now he needs to come in for the kill. CC continues to do good work for Mary Jane and Joe K.

The lovely Linda Tyer is the best Mayor of Pittsfield politics in over a generation! She is a beautiful woman on so many wonderful levels. She stands for social and economic justice for all citizens of Pittsfield. It is not her fault she inherited a mess of old garbage from the Doyle debacle, the Hathaway hack, the Ruberto regime, and the Bianchi bust!

So is the Republic company going to be under contract to pick up the garbage and if so for how long? What is to stop them from super gouging once the initial contract expires since we will be in deep with the cost of toters already. And what is going to happen to the company that picks up trash now?

Fun fact: In 2013 there was a big mafia bust in New York City regarding their involvement in trash hauling. Who knew?

Republic picks up garbage now. The new contract would run for three years. You raise an excellent point about the pact’s expiration. Covanta’s deal was about to expire, and it threatened the city with a pullout. The city, under Tyer, caved into what in effect was legal blackmail. It showed Covanta did its homework and did what most any company would do. It knew that the city would pay up, in this case more than $500,000 of public money for Covanta’s upgrades. Why pay for it yourself when you have dumb politicians eager to sell out the public at the drop of the first split dime? Why should be believe Republic will do any differently in three years? It will have a new fleet, courtesy of taxpayers, and the city will be stuck with 36,000 toters that cost the public more than $1.3 million. By then, Tyer will be long gone, cashing out in such a way that her current $100G salary will look like a combination of hard work and peanuts.

After the event, one the Navaho code talkers who was honored was asked by a CNN reporter what he thought of the Pocahontas remark. He kind of chuckled and said it was no worse than having Marines forcing them to yell Geronimo every time they had to jump out of a plane. He said he wasn’t offended by that or the Trump remark.

Special interest goverment has never had this kind of power…..they are stealing 1.5 trillion to 3 trillion….youve been scammed by your President,you fell in love…what made you think you had more power than the Corporations and the wealthy in their gated communities,,you fight their wars and you work the land and they reap your hard work…..they will knock again for your SS and MEDICARE….see you then blue middle class has never seen a truck this big coming at them to run them over

You dont have choices without real 100% information.Pittsfield and Kroll and Cacamo will never be the green city they want until they stop school kids be forced to school in cancer causing building.aThey have immature immune systems….Pittsfields worst failure

5.1 % FY2018 residential tax increase ? TAXING TYER and her RAT PACK, ie; Raise All Taxes pack strike again!!!
Those on the governmental gravy train, including government pensions or a non profit pay me a profitable paycheck can easily afford it.But seniors on social security take it in the ear again.
So sorry, Taxing Trashcan Tyer is in good steed with the local church, multi time divorced and living in sin in a $650,000 home in a gated community. She truly listens to her masters. TS if you weak kneed minions can’t see the forest through the trees.

Of course if you are a millionaire theater owner or car dealership and contributed to the mayors campaign this tax increase for others is just going to make you snicker. Tax increases are for suckers right Stanley?

her only hope is that she never needs a prop 2.5 over ride – the next Mayor will and then there will be panic – otherwise the listless, apathetic slothlike citizens of our fair city won’t care about tax increases…she can thank her stars “values” **snicker, snicker** keep rising, raising the cap….

Don’t worry about the 1.3 mil for the toters because Treasurer Toter is quoted in Eagle saying he wants to use free cash to pay for them, so it’s like they will be free. And the failure to return this “free cash” to the taxpayer in the former of no tax increase, or lower tax increase, is one reason taxes are going up 5 more percent, retroactive to 1July. And add another 5 percent for the new high school, next year and its a 10 percent tax increase, before they whack you another 5 for a regular porking next fiscal year for a 15 percent screwing. A royal screwing!

The second bill was paid before the first and three in lies the discrepancy councilor. Normally the line painting in the roads are painted before th school year starts, but this year the contract that went out to bid was lost in the shuffle.

And the paint wasn’t of high quality
Ias in previous years. B b blah Blah, and the ground water froze over and we were unable to put the cold patch down as in previous years, because the tar wasn’t hot enough and the water was in the hole before the ground was dry enough to be effctive enough for the new machine that produces a better quality of pavement because the machine will cure better because of the temperature,blah blah.And what about the m Million dollars for the salt, especially because of the mild winter,….. well Councilor, at this time I don’t have the spread sheet and blah blah blah? Aybe the Champ can shed some light on this. Champ? Champ? Champ?

I was livid after watching last night’s city council meeting. Crony phoney baloney. Why are we even debating a new trash system, when the city is on the brink of bankruptcy?? Instead of applying the extra 1.5 mil of free cash to lessen the tax burden on the citizens, they want that money set aside to pay for trashcans. TRASHCANS! Unbelievable! At least Mazzeo pressed Kerwood on his “figures,” and Connell tried an amendment to get another .5 mil applied to lessen the tax burden.
The title of your column Dan, accurately describes the situation.

So, we gave Covanta 500 G to keep jobs with zero help from others who use that facility, private entity by the way. And the new Hauler Comtract, with bid if no rfi,will purchase equipment and receive the contract but? Jobs are lost. Doesn’t that part alone sound a little fishy.

This is all about feathering Covantas issues. Imagine a held company needing as much help as they can get from a struggling. Municipality. Is this what that means by our new phrase,we’re all in it togetther?

Don’t worry about the 1.3 mil for the toters because Treasurer Toter is quoted in Eagle saying he wants to use free cash to pay for them, so it’s like they will be free. And the failure to return this “free cash” to the taxpayer in the former of no tax increase, or lower tax increase, is one reason taxes are going up 5 more percent, retroactive to 1July. And add another 5 percent for the new high school, next year and its a 10 percent tax increase, before they whack you another 5 for a regular porking next fiscal year for a 15 percent screwing. A royal screwing!

In this new tower system…if you have more garbage than your tote holds, what’s to prevent a devious resident from just putting regular garbage in the recycle tote.

Right now the sanitation engineer does a visual check. In the new system, the driver is in the truck, so a remote arm picks up the tote sight unseen. This could also reduce the garbage stream and increase the “recycle stream”

Shucks, just give me an ever bigger recycle tote so I can go super green. I can make the recycle stream really grow in volume. Not sure how the plant in Springfield will react, but hey, that’s there issue. We can bring a new meaning to a commingled recycle stream.

Under Rielly we had 12 million in free cash 1990…..Close Allendale and Crosby,kids depend on adults like Kroll and Pete White and Cacamo Mazzeo…stop pretending you people dont know that kids get sick in these buildings

Hmmmmm…Is the fix in on this valuation stuff? I mean, say a small, suffering Western Massachusetts city were facing substantial….economic difficulty, starting to bump up against the levy limit. COULD an influential state official be prevailed upon to help another state official decide that said city’s property was suddenly, magically, worth more? If I were writing a mystery novel, I’d also throw in something about a nefarious involvement with a trucking/hauling company to cook up a multi-million $$ project from which ALL participants could reap financial benefit…but that might strain credibility.

Can I still put a 4 foot 2×4 in the toter? Because now you can leave a 4 foot 2×4 out for pick up and they will take it. Hope it does not get wedged sideways in there.
Or am I now going to have to take that 4 foot 2×4 to the incinerator?

You will probably have to take those 3 cans to Covanta and pay to get rid of them.

If someone was injgenuatable (my word) they would invent a small compactor for homes. Then we could get a shitload of stuff in a 65 gallon toter although the toter may then weigh 622 pounds. So that begs the question…is there a weight limit? Can I put 622 lbs of potatoes in the damn thing? Will someone now be checking each bag for grass clippings and yard waste?

On the Toter issue, the bottom line is the City Councilors will be the ones holding the bag. Why do we have to change at this time?Covanta is losing money? This is a TIF in the form of fear and loathing using recycling and blame of the users, when in fact the logistics for their business model that was used before recycling waste was implemented. Recycling still comes down to enforcement which is the Cities problem, toters are not the answer, for many reasons, no savings,i convenient, an to many unmanageable. One person said they use a Bungy Cord.The City is using the excuse relating to Covanta that jobs will be eliminated, which they will, that in itself is bad business altogether. The 500 g the City gave Covanta is a shame.

One other tidbit?over at Covanta. If Covanta doesn’t renew the contract they currently have with the City, what happens to the Capital investment money the City just gave them? And what or where will the workers do after the City gave them a half million? Was there a stipulation that the workers are employed until the contract is up? And that’s it?

Now, we have to recycle,put waste in the Toter with a bag, one assumes, buy a Bungy cord so critters don’t get to it and purchase bags for overloads, build a bigger area at our home to store them, and navigate in the winter ice snow sleet wind, and ice skates might be required.

Don’t forget the money you wasted on purchasing your current garbage receptacles.
And when all our old receptacles are disposed of, just think of all that plastic being dumping into the environment. And these liars claim they are all for this Go Green crap.
This is nothing more than a money maker for the special interests connected to the Lyer, I mean Tyer administration.

I have had to deal with these things. And dragging a full can over rutted snow and ice is both a pain in the ass and dangerous to anyone who may lose their footing.

and wondering….are these things set back down in your yard or the road? Because if they are in the road and it is snowy and plows may need to do the road I can see an unhappy plow guy. May find 20 cans all up at the end of the street after a storm

I agree Dusty. I have also dealt with these toters. In the winter, snow and slush builds up between the toter wheels and the toter body freezing them up. Then you are left to drag it. Should also be interesting on some streets with steep hills.

I am paying less per kilowatt hour with EverSource. Now, when the mail came for the city’s new electric proposal many ripped it up, so does that mean we are automatically using this new company? I don’t not like the fact,whether rates are locked in our not, the City telling us what to do. I’m perfectly happy with what I have and this includes the garbage system that we now have in place. On the garbage though as long as it is, picked up, I don’t care, but it looks to be a lot inconvenient for many residents.

If you can move out of Allendale school do so tomorrow,if you can work somewhere else go immediately,if your Mr Sheran you need to go to Mccandless today…..you children must not be exposed to toxins of any kind.Crosby has mold and a school a horrible enviroment to work in,afreezer in 1 room and the next room is 100 degrees. This building should be torn down.

Bloomington Indiana (where I live) just adopted a system that looks very similar to a “toter” system. The estimate is that this will cost $2.5 million and we pay for it by increased taxes which are just added to our water bill. We get a recycle bin for free and pay these prices for the sanitation carts.

96 gallon: (26″ wide/34.5″ deep/46″ high) – $16.60 per month

64 gallon: (24″ wide/27″ deep/41.5″ high) – $10.52 per month

35 gallon: (19″wide/23.75″deep/37.5″ high) – $6.22 per month

Its my understanding that this pays for the whole system. The advantage is lower injuries to workers.

I know of a handicapped person who resides alone. Currently, with the approval of the city, a Republic worker picks up the garbage bag(s) from the garage…approximately 100′ from the street. Under the toter system, the driver will have to leave the truck to retrieve…dump…and return the toter to the garage.

What about someone who breaks a leg and has a two hundred foot driveway? By the way the 90 pound totes look as ridulous as Bungies proposal. Let the Coty Council be the ones who have to answer for this debacle.

These are times that call for acts of rebellion. I suggest that we all construct our own trebuchets or catapults. We choose a mutually satisfactory destination, and we thus direct our unwanted messes in that general direction.

The devices can be well secreted in a school gym,or garden bed, or the Hess Jungle during the day and dragged down city streets by night. Keep those damned toters empty by all means!

I believe that despite the misbehavior of influential creatures that seek to corrupt our Mayor as they have others before, the Mayor truly loves us, and once she understands that these offenses are burdensome and unwanted, she will understand our plight and relent.

To wit, I propose that a Committee of Public Safety be formed to deliberate cohesive responses to these offending edicts. This Committee shall hereby be charged with the authority to direct with all due authority the free citizens and yeomen thus committed to the execution of its decisions. This Committee will choose a meeting place free of drunken power brokers and other persona of doubtful states, and it shall consist of five members. Decision will be considered rendered with agreement of three of five.

It shall be named, as is appropriate, The Committee of Public Safety. I propose a formal committee comprised of members of good character to be selected by their peers and to be limited to a single term, and it will be the Peoples’ answer to machinations of City Hall.